People throughout history have kept personal diaries, and some have even made their names primarily through working as diarists. More unusual, however, are those who penned their innermost thoughts in secret code. Here are some of the most notable people in history who wrote their journals using codes and ciphers.
1. Beatrix Potter
Beloved children’s author Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) was best known for her stories like
The Tale of Peter Rabbit. But she also kept a series of diaries in a code of her own making from the age of 15 to 30. While Potter never discussed her reasons for creating the code, her biographer Linda Lear speculated that it stemmed from her constricted upbringing and a wish to express herself more freely in secret than she could in everyday life.